VANCOUVER — Overseas immigration to B.C. is down 22 per cent in the past decade, driven largely by a plunge in migration from China, which has long been this province’s largest source of immigrants.

The number of permanent residents moving to B.C. from China has fallen by half, to just over 6,000 in 2014 from 13,600 in 2005, according to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada. China’s proportion of B.C.’s new permanent residents dropped to 17 per cent from 30 per cent in the decade.

As of Dec. 31, 2014, China was on the verge of being dethroned as B.C.’s largest contributor of permanent residents. It had dropped to being on par with India and only slightly ahead of the Philippines. Those three countries contributed roughly equal shares of permanent residents in 2014. Taken together, those three countries represented half of all new permanent residents to B.C. in that year.

There is no consensus on what’s driving the decline, which is also happening nationally.

Henry Yu, a history professor at the University of B.C. who studies migration between China and Canada’s west coast, said the decline in permanent residents does not mean there are fewer Chinese in B.C.

“What you’re seeing is the benefits of permanent residency have declined over time. It doesn’t mean there are less Chinese here. It just means that permanent residency as a desirable decision has declined, at times precipitously.”

Yu points to the former Conservative government’s introduction of a 10-year super visa as “ground changing.” Super visas are valid for 10 years and allow parents and grandparents to visit children in Canada for up to two years at a time. The government introduced the program in 2011 as it capped the number of new permanent residence applications for parents and grandparents it would accept because of a lengthy backlog.

For Chinese parents who have children studying in Canada, for example, it often makes more sense to apply for a super visa than for permanent residence, Yu explained.

“If you have a 10-year super visa, then what’s the upside of being a (permanent resident)? In fact, there’s quite a few downsides to being a (permanent resident),” Yu said, noting that having to pay taxes in Canada is at the top of that list. There is also no requirement to be a permanent resident in order to own property in Canada.

Vancouver immigration lawyer Steven Meurrens identified other factors, such as increased language proficiency requirements for most programs that have discouraged permanent residents applications from China.

“Obviously India and the Philippines have more people who speak English. But also the termination of the investor program I think decimated immigration from China,” he said.

The number of permanent residents from other countries that used the immigrant investor program, such as Taiwan and South Korea, has also dropped.

Another factor could be the differing priorities of immigration consultants serving various countries, Meurrens said.

“The Filipino and Indian consultants have always seemed to be about how do we help as many people at a reasonable price as possible ... a lot of the Chinese consultants for the longest time focused exclusively on the investors, and how can I get one or two investors, because those files paid massive commissions.”

But immigration lawyer Richard Kurland, who has been tracking the drop in numbers from China for years, said it is unlikely language requirements or the scaled-back investor program are having much of an effect. More likely, he said, is that the individuals who would qualify under Canada’s new skilled worker program — young, highly skilled and English or French speaking — feel their economic prospects are better in China.

Nationally, India and China traded places as Canada’s top immigrant source country until 2010, when the Philippines surpassed both. But in B.C., China has long held the top spot.

The rise in permanent residents from the Philippines has not been as pronounced in B.C. as in the rest of Canada; it has increased by a third in this province while it doubled nationally in the last 10 years. Immigration from India was consistent over the same period.

The fastest growing source of immigrants is Iran, which was the fourth-largest source country in 2014, up from eighth in 2005. Immigration to B.C. from Ireland has increased ten-fold, although on a relatively small number: 565 in 2014 compared with 55 in 2004.

While there were fewer permanent residents to B.C. in 2014 compared with a decade ago, the number of temporary residents — students, visitors and temporary foreign workers — has skyrocketed. The number of temporary workers alone almost doubled to 65,000 from 34,000, though Meurrens said he expects that figure to go down in the coming years due to recent restrictions on the temporary foreign worker program.

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Permanent residents to B.C. from China drops by half

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